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Electronic CPG-brand enhancement to reach $1.7B in 2022
August 17, 2011
According to IDTechEx research in the new report "Brand Enhancement by Electronics in Packaging 2012-2022" (www.IDTechEx.com/brand), the global demand for electronic smart packaging devices is currently at a tipping point and will grow rapidly from $30 million in 2012 to $1.7 billion in 2022. The electronic packaging (e-packaging) market will remain primarily in consumer packaged goods (CPG), reaching 35 billion units that have electronic functionality in 2022.
E-packaging addresses the need for brands to reconnect with the customer or face oblivion from copying. That even applies to retailer own brands. It addresses the aging population's consequent need for disposable medical testers and drug delivery devices. Electronic packaging addresses the fact that one third of us have difficulty reading ever smaller instructions.
Glimpse of the Tipping Point
Fulton Innovation's concept of Nestlé's Cheerios cereal box uses inorganic electroluminescent (EL) displays on the packaging, powered by inductive coupling. Bank card provider Inteligensa uses flexible displays for one-time password display cards to over-come online fraud, identity theft and unauthorized access costs. Solar cells power displays in interactive posters, from Toppan Forms and Dai Nippon Printing. AirCode touch technology from Printechnologics GmbH uses existing multi-touch smart phone displays to "read" digital information printed in paper, cardboard or foils. Hence, it can be used for a broad variety of e-packaging, e.g. for marketing and consumer information applications like loyalty programs, brand protection, lotteries, and access to online content. MWV have commercialized cartons which light up and play sounds when touched. These e-packaging examples are only a glimpse of what is coming in the next decade.
Ultimate Smart Packaging
So far, most e-packaging beyond RFID and EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) has taken the form of primary packaging that makes the product more useful and attractive in the eyes of the consumer, shown in the following figure The new report "Brand Enhancement by Electronics in Packaging 2012-2022" (www.IDTechEx.com/brand ) deals mainly with e-packaging involving more of the human senses, which will be more important to all in the value chain. The EAS/RFID route is almost always invisible to the consumer and the other (right side) route is usually immediately recognized and appreciated by the consumer. The main focus is on electronic and electrical aspects, sometimes simply referred to as electronic smart packaging.
Challenges
The printed electronics components are available today to do these things, but providers tend to only want to sell a component (a battery, display, transistor, etc.), and not design a complete product. That leaves adopters having to manage the creation of working products on their own. The printed electronics industry needs creative designers to come up with completely new concepts that will amaze consumers. The technology is there, the creativity is not.
Electronic Functionality Integration
Most consumer packaged goods (CPG) leaders and their best brand facing support companies now have multi-disciplinary teams working in the area of electronic functionality integration. They see printed electronics modernizing everything: product, packaging, shelf edge, point of sale, posters and rewards using electronics on both paper and plastic film. Much of this is not entirely printed as yet but that is the route to cost reduction and greater functionality. For example, at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA event in Santa Clara, CA, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, Procter & Gamble, Mars, Reckitt Benckiser, MWV and many others will discuss their needs and experiences with printed electronics (www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA ).
Main Drivers of the Rapid Growth
The rapid growth will be driven by trials now being carried out by leading CPG companies and the rapid technical developments emanating for over 3000 organizations, half of them academic, that are currently working on printed and potentially printed electronics.
The six main factors driving the rapid growth of electronic smart packaging are:
•Aging population,
•Consumers are more demanding,
•Consumers are more wealthy,
•Changing lifestyles,
•Tougher legislation,
•And concern about crime and the new terrorism.
There will also be growth from existing applications such as talking pizza boxes, winking logos on multipacks of biscuits and bottles of rum, compliance monitoring blisterpacks in drug trials, prompting plastic bottles of drugs that prompt the user, testers on batteries and reprogrammable decoration on mobile phones. However, IDTechEx's projected adoption only represents a few percent of CPG packages being fitted with these devices in 2022.